Kieran
Delaney-Schwartz—adoptee, underachiever, and self-professed-slacker IT
guy—lives his under-the-radar life by the motto: Don’t try, don’t fail. His
adopted siblings are all overachievers thanks to his driven, liberal parents,
but Kieran has elected to avoid disappointing anyone by not getting their hopes
up. He’s coasting through his early twenties when he’s hit head-on by Theo. The
successful decade-older Broadway producer sweeps him off his feet for a whirlwind
thirteen months that are pretty sweet, until it all comes screeching to a halt
on Valentine’s Day, with an unexpected proposal via an NYC Times Square flash
mob. Now everyone wants in on the wedding, except the grooms….

KIERAN’S
PHONE buzzed incessantly in his pocket, and he glared at his khakis as if he
could see through to the caller. What part of ‘away from my desk’ is confusing
to you people?

It
was his own fault for violating his core principle: Success invariably leads to
diminished returns. He’d done one job well because it was interesting, and now
everyone in the building wanted the Korean IT Guy With the Hair to be the one
who showed up when they yelled for help.

He
sank down against the wall until he sat folded, head on his knees. He’d hide
out in the server room, at least until the afternoon sleepies hit around two
and they all started playing their Facebook games. In fact, as long as they
could get online to Facebook, probably no one would notice if everything else
on the servers went dark.

This
room had a consistently cool temperature, perfect humidity control, and
top-of-the-line filters. His nose and eyes never itched when he was in here.
The constant rush of the fans blotted out any outside noise.

The
phone buzzed again, a steady rhythm. He should have put it on silent.

Just
audible over the white noise of the fans, keys jangled outside, then scraped
against the door. Not a lot of people had keys to the server room, but most of
the ones who did could fire him. He rolled onto his knees and slid across the
floor, pulled out a screwdriver, and prepared to look busy.

A
voice came to him now—Shanara, the office manager. As bosses went, she wasn’t a
bad one, but Kieran still figured hiding and ignoring his phone would probably
get him reported to the head of IT, who was a total dick.

“Someone
said they saw him headed this way.”

“Thank
you for all your help, Shanara.”

Kieran
dropped the screwdriver. What the hell was Theo doing here, thirty blocks away
from where Kieran thought he was? His brain raced through multiple
possibilities. Theo had met Kieran’s family, but why would Theo have been the
one to come if something had happened to one of them?

“My
pleasure, Mr. Medina.”

“Theo,
please.”

The
door opened. Kieran straightened from picking up his screwdriver and caught
Theo’s wink square in the chest.

There
it was again. That funny jolt that Kieran was sure his sister, the
epidemiologist, could explain resulted through neurotransmitters, conditioned
responses, and hormone dumps. But since Siobhan had been in Sierra Leone for
the past eight months working to contain the latest Ebola outbreak, she was a
little busy for stupid questions about why Kieran’s heart jumped when his
boyfriend looked at him like that.

As
cheerful as Theo usually was, Kieran was pretty sure Theo wouldn’t wink if
something bad had happened. It didn’t explain why he was suddenly next to
Shanara in the door to the server room.

Hi
seemed like a safer bet than What the fuck are you doing here? so he went with
that.

“Hey,
I wanted to take you to lunch.” Theo’s smile didn’t affect Kieran’s nervous
system like that look could, but it was definitely an autonomous response that
made Kieran smile back. “I planned to do it tomorrow, but it’s the understudy’s
first matinee and I need to be there.”

“You’re
so lucky, Kieran.” Shanara had a smile a bit brighter than her usual
professional one. Theo had the same effect on other people. “My boyfriend
probably won’t even remember.”

Kieran
was already in the same boat with Shanara’s boyfriend. Then he saw the rose
Theo produced from behind his back, and Kieran’s brain latched on to the
significance. Valentine’s Day was this weekend.

Theo
turned and offered the rose to Shanara. “If you can spare him.”

She
held the paper-wrapped stem in the space between them. “I thought this was for
Kieran.”

Theo
sighed. “He’s allergic to flowers. And romance. But I’m working on him.”

Kieran
shoved his glasses up on his nose and glared, only to get smacked with another
Theo wink, which induced a helpless shake of his head.

“It
might take some time….” Theo trailed off and glanced at Shanara.

Her
smile was broad, sharpening her cheeks. “You have personal leave banked, right,
Kieran?” Barely pausing for his agreement, she said, “I’ll write you as out for
the afternoon, let Todd know.”

Kieran
nodded. The less he had to deal with the asshole director of IT, the better.
Especially now that Kieran was in high demand.

“Thank
you so much, Shanara.” Theo handed her a business card. “Just present that at
the Will Call window any time and they’ll take care of you.”

“Thank
you, Theo. Be sure to lock up the server room, Kieran.”

Shanara
shut the door, which had an auto lock, so Kieran was puzzling over her order
when Theo put his hands behind Kieran’s neck and kissed him.

A
typical Theo kiss, warm, open, inviting Kieran to decide if it was going
deeper.

Kieran
put his hands on Theo’s back, under his coat, touched the velvety fleece, and
breathed in the rich leather scent from his shoulder. The heavy wool coat Theo
had been wearing when they met vanished immediately when Kieran confessed his
allergy to it.

When
Kieran drew back, Theo released him with a leer. “Cozy in your little den,
here.”

Kieran
shook his head. “The servers are sensitive to humidity. I’m pretty sure that
includes jizz.”

“I’m
insulted. I never spill a drop.”

Theo
said it mockingly, but the reminder of how incredible Theo was at sucking dick
stirred a tingle in Kieran’s balls.

“Yeah.”
Theo leaned to brush his forehead against Kieran’s. “You’re thinking about it
now.”

He
was right. Because Theo was damned good at reading Kieran. The first person
ever who bothered to pay enough attention to figure out—and offer—what Kieran
wanted.

A
nooner sounded interesting, but they certainly weren’t doing it in the server
room.

“Thought
you said we were going to lunch?”

“I
did. Are you hungry?”

Kieran
shrugged. He could eat, but he didn’t want Theo to think Kieran expected a
lobster dinner just because he was peckish. Theo liked making people happy. He
wasn’t a pushover or anything. Kieran had heard him get pissed enough to snap
at people on the phone. Once when he met Theo at the theater, Kieran had heard
him go off in a rage about a delivery of light bulbs. So scratch that. Theo was
nice to most people, but he liked trying to make Kieran happy. And that didn’t
suck at all.

The
look in Theo’s eyes did that thing to Kieran’s circulatory system again as Theo
tugged him toward the door. “Come on, then.”

About
the Author:

K.A. Mitchell
discovered the magic of writing at an early age when she learned that a
carefully crayoned note of apology sent to the kitchen in a toy truck would
earn her a reprieve from banishment to her room. Her career as a spin-control
artist was cut short when her family moved to a two-story house and her trucks
would not roll safely down the stairs. Around the same time, she decided that
Chip and Ken made a much cuter couple than Ken and Barbie and was perplexed
when invitations to play Barbie dropped off. She never stopped making stuff up,
though, and was surprised to find out that people would pay her to do it.
Although the men in her stories usually carry more emotional baggage than even
LAX can lose in a year, she guarantees they always find their sexy way to a
happy ending.

K.A. loves to
hear from her readers.

She is often
found talking about her imaginary friends on Twitter @ka_mitchell